Police Blotter, Week of May 9, 2012

‘Evil spirit’ scammers
Fifth Precinct detectives are looking for two or three women who have been victimizing elderly Asian women in Chinatown by offering to remove evil spirits and bad luck from their jewelry and money and stealing it from them.

Two scammers, described only as Asian women, approached their latest victim, 62, at Doyers St. and Bowery at noon on April 30 and told her she had an evil spirit and needed her jewelry to be blessed.

They approached an 85-year-old victim at 9 a.m. April 25 in front of 193 Eldridge St. and fled with her jewelry, which they said they would bless.

At 11 a.m. on April 18 they fled with the jewelry that they offered to bless for a 63-year-victim at an unidentified Chinatown location.

Three suspects, described as Asian women in their 40s, approached a victim, 63, at Orchard and E. Houston Sts. at 10 a.m. April 14, told her they needed to perform a ritual for her and demanded her jewelry and cash. They also told an 81-year-old victim at 9:15 a.m. on April 4 that they needed her property to remove bad luck from it. At 9:30 a.m. on March 29 they asked another victim, whose age was not disclosed, for her property to remove evil spirits.

Anyone with information on the suspects should phone the N.Y.P.D. Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or report it online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text 274637 (CRIMES) and enter TIP577. All tips are confidential.

Guilty in parking punch
A Manhattan jury found Oscar Fuller, 35, guilty of third-degree misdemeanor assault for punching a woman in the face on Feb. 25, 2011, during an argument over a curbside parking space on E. 14th St. between Avenues A and B. Fuller is to be sentenced June 18. The argument started when Fuller tried to park in a space that the victim, Lana Rosas, then 25, was trying to hold for a friend’s car. Fuller punched the victim and knocked her to the pavement where she struck her head. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital and was in a coma for a week. The victim is still undergoing rehabilitation.

Fuller fled the scene but witnesses remembered his license plate number and told police, who arrested him in Queens four days later.

Groping charge goof-up
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Monday dismissed charges against Karl Vanderwoude, arrested April 14 and charged with groping four women in Lower Manhattan, the Village and the Upper East Side over the previous two months.

“The defendant is not the person who committed these acts,” Assistant District Attorney Kevin Rooney told Judge Erica Edwards.

D.A. investigators discovered that Vanderwoude had valid alibis for when the incidents occurred at the Chambers St. subway station on March 30, at King and Varick Sts. on Feb. 26, on Second Ave. near E. 67th St. on Feb. 27 and on E. 62nd St. near Park Ave. on Feb. 26. Witnesses misidentified Vanderwoude in a lineup. A Dutch native who works for a financial firm, Vanderwoude conducts Bible study in his Park Slope apartment.

“I still love New York,” he told reporters at Criminal Court after the charges were dropped.

Sex attack on teen
Ramon Fernandez, 43, was charged with getting a 14-year-old girl drunk around 8:30 p.m. Sat., April 26, and sexually attacking her in the Baruch Houses building where he lives, police said. The suspect was arrested a few hours later in his apartment, where he was in possession of an undisclosed quantity of marijuana.

Armed delivery
A resident of 171 Thompson St. answered a knock on his door at 2 p.m. Sat., May 5, and opened it to a man in a FedEx uniform who hit him on the head with a handgun and pushed his way in with two accomplices in FedEx uniforms. They demanded money and jewelry and fled with $2,000 in cash and an iPhone.

Shopper unzipped
A New Jersey woman shopping at the All Saints Warehouse store, 76 Wooster St., around 1:45p.m. Sat., May 5, discovered that someone had unzipped the bag she was carrying over her shoulder and stolen her wallet with $50 in cash and credit cards. She learned later than an unauthorized credit charge of $104 had been made for a MetroCard.

Chinatown takeout
Police are looking for a suspect who stole two laptops, an iPad and an iPhone on March 30 from an office on the fifth floor of 59 E. Broadway. The suspect, who was caught on surveillance tape, also entered an office on the sixth floor of 98 E. Broadway at 11:50 p.m. March 28 but fled empty-handed when an alarm went off.

The same suspect entered a Baxter St. building on the afternoon of April 19, made his way to a fifth-floor apartment and fled with a 32-inch flat-screen TV through the lobby and out the front door. He was described as being in his late 20s with short black hair, 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 195 pounds, last seen wearing a white Yankees jersey, blue jeans and a black backpack with orange stripes.

Meatpacking mobile theft
Police arrested Khalid Sasdeq, 33, shortly after 4:10 a.m. Fri., May 4, in front of 18 Little W. 12th St. for taking a cell phone from a 33-year-old male victim. The suspect refused to be handcuffed and was charged with resisting arrest and robbery.

Bag robber gets rough
A man grabbed the handbag of a woman, 61, on Eighth Ave. at 14th St. around 11:22 p.m. Fri., May 4, but she wouldn’t let go, police said. A minute later, he grabbed the bag of a 23-year-old woman who was passing by and knocked her to the pavement. Witnesses identified the suspect to police, who arrested Tyrone Gonzalez, 23, for robbery. The younger victim hit her head on the pavement when she fell and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, police said.

Anchors away
A woman patron of Anchor Bar, 301 Spring St., left her bag on a table for five minutes around 3 p.m. Sat., May 5, and returned to find it had been stolen with her iPhone and credit cards, police said.

Brief joyride
An Armonk, N.Y., man parked his 2009 white Porsche in the Edison Parking garage at 272 Spring St. around 8:11 p.m. Fri., April 4. He later discovered that someone had driven it around the block and abandoned it in front of 284 Hudson St. two blocks from the garage.

Car break-in
A Staten Island man parked his car on Broome St. between Sixth Ave. and Varick St. around 2:30 p.m. Sat., May 5, went shopping for two hours and returned to find the rear passenger-side window broken and his laptop, which had been on the floor, stolen.

Motorbike gone
A man who parked his 2009 Kawasaki motorcycle on the southwest corner of Sixth Ave. and Watts St. at 9:30 a.m. Mon., April 30, discovered several hours later that it had been stolen.

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